Hello TNT!! c: I was wondering along with many other users, if there will be a pet name purge again anytime soon? We'd all love it if pet names on old abandoned accounts could be created again. ^w^ Thank you! ~ suchgo
Hi! Given the old data breach we learned about this week, we have started discussing beginning a new purge. Buuuuut, (come on, you knew there'd be a but), it will definitely take some time to even be ready to start running it (namely, making sure we identify and include any new places we store account info in our system to make sure the account is totally purged and identifying accounts to be purged, as there are some lengthy requirements involved.)

Faerie Gumblesh and starry Gumblesh were announced over a year ago. Now are active but you still cannot paint them. An they have never appeared in the shops. What's happening with them? ~ watershipknl
Ask and you shall receive my friend! Well probably, actually more like possibly, definitely depending on my caffeine intake for the day, but luckily for you I'm pretty set at the moment so, so those colours of Gumblesh are now available to be painted!

So I bet we're all sick of the UC debate and I noticed you said in issue 722 that it wouldn't work with the current system but didn't explain. It's something I've suspected myself, but have only guessed at the details. Many players are older and wiser and would benefit from some more detailed clarification that explains it. Specifically, it's one of the MOST requested features that I've ever seen and still going strong 9 years later, so I think it'd be fair to offer a more substantial explanation than no, if one exists. Please leave out my username. ~ username removed
So there are a lot of ways that UCs just don't really jive with the system we have in place now,and I won't cover all of them, but to give you an idea of the big ones, we upload pets as a system of layers now, they are pulled in as needed to create your pet, based on the colour, mood, etc. Unconverted pets were not created that way, instead they are a single static image that doesn't change, and the whole image is swapped out for different moods.

So, why don't they work in our system? They'd need to be broken into layers, they'd need new art to fill in all missing areas (aka underneath anything removable would need to be fixed, because right now it would just be empty. Imagine taking of your royal Aisha's dress and seeing a blank space - not ideal), we'd have to fix the body parts layering improperly (as layers show in a set order that UC's don't always align with, again, leaving holes), we'd need to figure out having different body parts for different emotions (as we only do so for eye's and mouths right now), we'd have to add in sickly emotions for all of them or else they wouldn't exist if they're sick, the clothing items would have to be different items for each mood or else they wouldn't fit right, we'd have to make sure clothing item's only worked for the correct colour/species/mood or they wouldn't fit right (there is no way to change the clothing pieces based on mood), we'd have to make UC it's own body type, like how a baby or mutant pet is, but even more complex to deal with all of the different colors and body positions, especially across moods, so customization doesn't get messed up, and the list really could go on for days. Now, assuming we ever figured out a way to make the various pieces of unconverted pets work in our system (which I'm not sure is even possible), we'd have to make a paintbrush for each UC colour separate from existing paintbrushes and make sure UC pets are distinguished by name so users aren't surprised when customization pieces won't work on them (again, similar to baby or mutant pets).

And that's just scratching the surface of issues, but it comes down to that they weren't drawn to work as separate assets the way the converted pets are, and trying to make them fit in that way would be nearly impossible.

To clarify, I was asked why UC pets don't work in our system, which is what I tried to explain. Now, as to why we won't bring them back as creatable - they don't work in our system, and so it takes significant manual work to essentially override how our system should work for the static image instead (from what I've been told at least, because #notaprogrammer). So, in order to make UC's creatable on a large scale, we'd have to make it work in our system. It's not about actually customizing your pet, it's about UC pets not working in a system that was built for customizing. Hope that helps clear things up for y'all!

Is making relationships between Neopets not allowed? Even if it's just on their petpage/look-up? If not, why do the past plots have relationships between Neopets? ~ username removed
It is not allowed, even on their petpage and lookup. We have included them in past plots because when we write the stories, it is obviously easy to control the content and make sure it is appropriate for Neopets. Outside of that though, it is much more complex to police exactly what users can and can't write, so it's better to not allow relationships at all. Sorry!

Hiya, Country Queen! May I ask what is the process of adding new Neopet colour releases to the Rainbow Pool? It's because as of now, while I'm typing this question, ever since Kougra Day all of the new ones released in the news are still missing! :o ~ mimihs2_s2
Howdy! So, as I mentioned above, we upload new Neopet colours with each piece as it's own layer, and for different emotions. Soooo it takes some time and is a bit of a process. I'm sorry we got a little behind! It's been a little busy of a time here lately, between finishing up Daily Dare, starting on Altador Cup, working on Project X, the Neomail issue, the other/unknown gender option and the issue that came with that, and the data breach we just found out about... yeah. It's been good times over here. They'll be released soon though! Promise, we're on it!

Hi CQ! With the Altador Cup just around the corner, I was wondering if and possibly when the Altador Team items will be available to buy in the NC mall? And more importantly, I'm curious to know if you will be re-releasing the Team Glitter Face Paints! I didn't realize how pretty there were and have been waiting months for the AC just for these face paints! ~ x_h0t_fuss
Hi! They'll be here before ya know it! Altador Cup team items that are re-released (which will include the face paints) are released into the Altador Cup shop as the teams are announced in the pre-event press tour leading up to the Cup!

I was just on Expellibox and I got taken to another user I've never seen before's account. It was in the Valentine's Site theme and said I had to choose a gender before playing the game. Hopped over here, refreshed, and now I'm back to normal, but I got taken to the user's lookup instead of Expellibox. I'm alarmed. ~ jrayeb3
So, as many of you know by now, we added the ability for users to not show their gender or identify as male/female with the "other" option this week. Unfortunately that presented this funny little issue where when viewing the NC Mall or Qasalan Expellibox, you see the pages as if you were a different user - yikes! I don't blame you for being alarmed. But this is just a viewing/cached page issue. It is NOT a security or account access issue - no one is in your account and you are not actually in theirs. Now, we're looking into it now to figure out what went wrong and resolve it, so just hang tight for now. Sorry it took us a day to look into it, if you've ambled by the TNT board lately, you'll see we had our hands full the past two days, but don't worry, you'll only be seeing your own page soon.

*Happy Thoughts*

Dear TNT, thank you from the bottom of my heart for the "Other" gender option. Maybe some of you all understand, maybe some never will, but it really does make Neopets so much more of a safe space to a lot of us. Thank you so much for making this site so much more welcoming and home-like. It truly does mean a lot.

I've been really impressed with the new weapons lately. The Volley Ball on Fire was very original in its design (something tough to do with almost 3,000 weapons already), the Shuriken is so much fun to use and really shook things up for mid-tier weapons, and now the Dangerous Maraquan Yo-yo providing a new interesting healer option. I know you guys took over when the BD was in an awkward state, and a lot of us (especially me) were pessimistic about the BD getting any attention when it needed it most. But these recent weapon designs have shown you guys can add some new and unique stuff to the pile of complexity that is the Battledome. (P.S. Bringing back HP increase would solidify you guys as the most benevolent BD overlords since the ancient times.

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